Charles+Klinetop

The first arrest I've found for abortionist Dr. Charles W. Klinetop was arrested for perpetrating an unwanted abortion on a young woman at the insistence of her in-laws.

In January of 1912, 38-year-old homemaker Minnie Miller died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. C.W. Klinetop. Klintop was identified by Coroner's Verdict.

While Klinetop's trial was pending, police got a call:

//Hello. This is the Lake Shore hospital. A woman is dying from an abortion in room 301. I am a patient and cannot afford to give my name, because I am not ready to leave the institution.//

Two plainclothesmen headed to the hopital, just in time to see two nurses speed away in a car, with a sick woman. The hospital management were not cooperative with the police, so the hospital superintendent was taken to the police station fr questioning. One at the station, the superintendent gave the woman's name as Miss Grace Smith, who was admittedly Klinetop's patient. This reinforced the caller's assertion that the mystery woman had suffered abortion injuries. I've been unable to determine if she lived or died.

Before her death in February of 1917, 20-year-old stenographer Edna May Lamb reported that Dr. Charles Klinetop had packed her cervix with gauze in order to cause an abortion.

In late October of 1923, 19-year-old Mrs. Lydia Nelson died at Chicago's Englewood Hospital from an abortion performed there that day, evidently by Dr. Charles Klinetop. Klinetop was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder in Lydia's death.

Klinetop was born in around 1864 in Iowa. He had a wife, Verna, and a son, Charles W. Jr.
 * [[image:Klinetop Chi Trib.png width="242" height="300" align="right"]]"Hospital Call Sends Police on Girl Mystery," //Chicago Tribune//, Aug. 28, 1915
 * "Charge of Girl Causes Arrest of Two Doctors, //Chicago Tribune//, Feb. 6, 1926
 * "Physician is Charged With Performing Illegal Operation and Man and Wife With Conspiracy," //Chicago Inter Ocean//, Jul. 31, 1909